LB 

/03/ 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  AT  SAN  FRANCISCO 

•* 

MONOGRAPH  SERIES—  A 
UC-NRLF 


17    D33 


Lock-  Step  Schooling  and 
a  Remedy 


The  Fundamental  Evils  and  Handicaps  of  Class  Instruction; 

and  a]^Report  of  Progress  in  the  Construction 

of  an  Individual  System 


FRIEND  WM.  RICHARDSON,  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  STATE  PRINTING 

SACRAMENTO,    CALIFORNIA 

1913 


GIFT  OF 


$i-^a-Smk~--^— -T--™^"-"-  —  •-" 


? 


*^ 


o- 


PREFACE. 


During  the  present  generation  the  efficiency  of  our  schooling,  even 
in  the  best  schools,  has  been  repeatedly  called  in  question.  There  is 
a  widespread  conviction  that  the  results  of  our  schooling  are  pain- 
fully disproportionate  to  what  is  expected  of  it  and  to  the  tremendous 
amount  of  energy  put  into  the  cause.  In  many  localities  and  institu- 
tions no  expense  of  money,  energy  and  sincerity  of  purpose  have  been 
spared,  yet  no  appreciable  improvement  has  been  made.  Unquestion- 
ably something  must  be  fundamentally  and  radically  wrong.  Natu- 
rally, suspicion  has  often  turned  upon  the  teaching  staff — upon  the 
honesty  and  integrity  of  their  purposes  and  upon  the  efficiency  of  the 
administrative  machinery.  But  those  most  intimately  acquainted  with 
facts  have  generally  become  very  thoroughly  convinced,  that  aside 
from  sporadic  instances,  the  fidelity  of  operators  of  the  school  system 
is  its  strongest  asset. 

In  the  most  recent  years  the  cry  has  gone  up  that  the  schools  can 
be  improved  only  by  injecting  into  the  course  of  study  a  broader  and 
richer  curriculum.  Many  new  studies  have  been  suggested  and  intro- 
duced. But  this  proceeding,  as  a  remedy,  shows  itself  shortsighted,  for 
if  the  schools  are  inefficient  in  the  teaching  of  the  subjects  which  for 
generations  they  have  been  attempting  to  teach,  efficiency  is  not  to  be 
won  by  adding  new  and  different  subjects.  The  fundamental  cause 
of  inefficiency  in  the  process  must  still  remain.  Further,  however 
desirable  and  necessary  it  may  be  to  introduce  certain  new  material, 
it  would  seem  certain  that  the  same  fate  of  inefficiency  must  befall  the 
teaching  of  the  new  subjects  as  now  besets  the  teaching  of  the  old.  It 
is  no  remedy  for  a  disordered  stomach  to  load  it  with  more  and  richer 
foods. 

But  there  is  one  source  of  possible  cause  that  has  been  overlooked. 
It  has  been  overlooked  because  it  is  so  manifest  and  so  fundamental 
that  it  would  seem  idle  to  suspect  it.  This  is  the  essential  structure 
of  the  system  itself.  In  the  following  report  I  have  laid  bare  certain 
impossible  asumptions  which  are  imbedded  in  the  foundation  of  the 
school  system  by  class  instruction.  These  are  appalling  facts  which 
do  not  easily  admit  dispute,  and  which,  once  admitted,  no  longer  justify 
further  wonder  that  our  schooling  should  be  inefficient.  I  also  outline 
the  plan  of  remedy  which  the  faculty  of  the  school  has  been  working 
out  by  experience  during  the  past  year.  We  are  keeping  accurate 
records,  and  at  a  subsequent  date,  as  time  and  trial  justify,  we  shall 
make  other  reports  showing  in  a  quantitative  way  the  measure  of  the 
efficiency  of  the  remedy  proposed. 

"333309  FREDERIC  BURK. 

(l) 


LOCK-STEP  SCHOOLING  AND  ONE 
REMEDY. 


Over  one  half  the  children  in  the  public  schools  in  the  United  States 
leave  between  the  ages  of  thirteen  and  fifteen  years  inclusive.  Just 
how  much  more  than  one  half  is  not  agreed  upon  by  experts.  The 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education  in  1911  ventured  the  apologetic 
estimate  that  it  is  "considerably  more."  Some  maintain  that  the 
number  of  young  people  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen 
years  who  are  not  in  school  is  nearer  to  ninety  than  to  fifty  per  cent. 
According  to  estimates  of  the  National  Committee  on  Child  Labor, 
there  are  working  in  occupations  in  the  United  States  one  million 
children,  one  half  of  American  parentage.  Yet  the  report  concludes 
that  all  the  girls  and  nine  tenths  of  the  boys  who  enter  upon  bread- 
winning  under  sixteen  years  of  age  find  employment  only  in  low-wage 
industries  and  remain  unskilled  workers  throughout  their  lives.  If 
schooling  approximates,  in  a  practical  way,  the  astonishing  values 
which  the  American  people  have  theoretically  placed  upon  it,  then  it 
is  sufficiently  deplorable  that  the  number  out  of  school,  at .  any  school 
age,  should  be  even  ten  per  cent.  That  it  is  "considerably  more"  than 
fifty  per  cent  is  appalling  and  justifies  a  special  session  of  Congress, 
provided  such  procedure  could  offer  any  prospect  of  remedy. 

The  Cause. 

As  to  cause,  there  is  palpably  much  wool-gathering.  Some  say 
poverty.  Others  ascribe  the  premature  development  of  the  American 
lust  for  money-making.  Still  others,  very  critical  people,  assert  that 
the  cause  lies  in  the  failure  of  the  schools  to  succeed  in  teaching  very 
much  of  anything,  aside  from  reading  and  writing,  which  has  effective 
bearing  upon  breadwinning,  civic  or  social  life.  This  indictment  has 
become^  very  generally  admitted.  Some  apprehensive  schoolmasters 
who,  knowing  in  a  personal  and  practical  way  very  little  about  bread- 
winning,  citizenship  or  social  conditions,  are  nervously  scurrying  about, 
offering  to  make  the  schools  teach  any  and  all  new  nostrums  from 
schoolmarm-taught  agriculture  to  folk  dancing,  and  from  raffia  weav- 
ing to  ancient  pottery  making  and  first-aid  to  the  injured.  The  schools 
are  now  harvesting  the  fall  crop  from  these  good  intentions,  but  it 
requires  a  plumber  in  pedagogy  to  connect,  in  appropriate  terminology, 
the  breadwinning,  civic  or  social  purpose  of  these  nostrums  with  the 
harvested  products,  and  it  requires  an  exceedingly  feeble  and  attenu- 
ated intellect  to  perceive  this  connection.  World  efficiency  seems  to  be 
seedless — at  least  so  far  as  professional  pedagogues  have  discerned  to 
the  contrary. 

(3) 


But  whatever  the  remote  cause  of  this  school  desertion,  the  imme- 
diate cause,  simple-thinking  people  agree,  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  pupils 
do  not  succeed  well  in  school.  Very  few  people,  big  or  little,  readily 
stick  to  a  thing  at  which  they  are  not  reasonably  successful.  The 
statistics  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  show  that  in  a  large 
number  of  typical  cities  (rural  school  data  is  not  available)  that  from 
one  third  to  one  half  of  all  the  pupils,  now  remaining  in  the  schools, 
are  over  age,  i.  e.,  they  have  taken  one,  two,  three,  or  four  years  more 
than  they  should  in  order  to  reach  their  present  grades. 

Significance  of  Over-age  Conditions. 

By  ' '  over-age ' '  is  meant  that  a  pupil  is  above  the  age  which  is  normal 
for  his  grade.  "We  may  assume,  as  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion has  done,  that  a  pupil  who  is  six  or  seven  years  of  age  and  in  the 
first  grade  is  "normal/'  but  if  he  is  over  seven  years  and  in  the  first 
grade  he  is  "over-age."  Similarly  a  pupil  in  the  second  grade  and 
over  eight  years,  in  the  third  grade  and  over  nine  years,  in  the  fourth 
grade  and  over  ten  years,  in  the  fifth  grade  and  over  eleven  years,  and 
so  on,  is  "over-age."  He  may  be  one,  two,  three  or  more  years  "over- 
age" in  any  given  grade.  To  be  over-age  indicates,  as  a  rule,  that  a 
pupil  does  not  do  well  in  school — he  has  been  held  over  at  some  time 
in  a  grade. 

The  school  system  has  set  the  rate  of  one  grade  per  year  as  a  reason- 
able expectation  of  its  own  efficiency.  Yet  the  school,  upon  its  own 
standard,  fails  by  nearly  50  per  cent  among  the  survivors,  now  remain- 
ing in  the  schools.  If  we  should  include  the  pupils  who  already  have 
left  school,  lecause  they  were  over-age,  the  percentage,  we  may  safely 
conjecture,  would  be  far  higher.  Consequently,  the  over-age  condi- 
tions, based  as  they  are  upon  a  standard  set  by  the  school  itself  as 
reasonable,  is  a  most  deplorable  self-confessed  indictment  of  school 
inefficiency. 

Over-age  Not  a  Characteristic  of  Poorer  Schools. 

Let  us  not  suppose  that  these  over-age  figures  come  from  schools 
which,  compared  with  other  schools,  are  poorly  taught  and  inefficiently 
managed.  Let  us  take  the  records  of  five  California  cities,  which  any 
one  familiar  with  facts  will  agree  now  represent,  and  for  twenty  years 
have  represented,  the  very  best  teaching  and  the  very  best  administra- 
tive management  of  any  schools  in  California,  if  not  also  in  the  United 
States — Los  Angeles,  Pasadena,  Alameda,  Fresno,  Stockton.  This 
table  shows  the  percentage  of  the  pupils  in  the  eight  elementary  grades 
who  are  over-age. 


Boys 

Girls 

!Los  Angeles 

41.6 

34.8 

Pasadena 

43.8 

35.0 

Alameda             '                                  _  _              

47.2 

42.0 

Fresno 

53.4 

44.5 

Stockton  _. 

39.0 

30.7 

(4) 


Or,  we  may  take  other  cities  of  the  United  States  as  follows: 

Percentages  in    Elementary  School  "Over-age." 


Boys 

Girls 

Chicago 

356 

298 

Kansas  City 

53.1 

489 

Detroit                   _      _____        _____    

37.6 

33.1 

Minneapolis  _  _  _  _  _            _      

44.0 

37.9 

Elmira,  N.  Y. 

388 

345 

Philadelphia        _                _                _____ 

44.2 

40.3 

Salt  Lake  City  __ 

54.1 

40.5 

Seattle    . 

49.4 

45.2 

The  degree  of  "over-age"  is  illustrated  by  the  following  table;  the 
first  column  shows  the  percentage  of  pupils  who  are  one  year  over-age, 
the  second  column  the  percentage  who  are  two  years  over-age,  and  so  on : 

The   Degree  of  Over-age. 


1  year 

2  years 

3  years 

4  years 
or  more 

Los  Angei 
Alameda 
Fresno 

es      Boys           _  _ 

22.7 
21.0 

25.6 
24.5 

23.8 
22.2 

22.1 
20.4 

20.3 
18.5 

19.9 
18.1 

21.0 
19.8 

21.9 
21.1 

21.3 
23.0 

25.7 
26.5 

11.9 
9.3 

13.8 
12.1 

14.4 
12.1 

13.2 
9.9 

11.6 
9.0 

9.7 
7.6 

10.7 
9.0 

12.5 
11.7 

15.6 

12.2 

14.4 
12.6 

4.4 

3.1 

4.6 
3.4 

7.8 
5.6 

5.6 
5.1 

5.0 
2.6 

3.8 
2.7 

4.0 
3.2 

6.2 
5.0 

10.7 
4.2 

5.9 

4.5 

2.6 

1.4 

.  3.2 

2.) 

7.4 
4.6 

4.6 
2.4 

2.1 
.6 

2.2 
1.4 

1.9 
1.1 

3.6 
2.5 

6.5 
1.1 

3.4 
1.6 

Girls  

Boys 

Girls  .  

_Boys 

Pasadena 
Stockton 
Chicago 

Girls        _      -  _  _ 

Boys  _  _    

Girls 

_  _  _Boys  

Girls 

_  _  Boys  

Detroit 

Girls 

_    Boys     _  _  

Philadelp 
Salt  Lake 
Seattle  __ 

Girls 

hia    _Boys  _______ 

Girls 

__  _  Boys   __  _  

Girls 

__  Boys  

Girls  —  

It  is  a  poor  system  in  which  the  rules  do  not  work  both  ways.  Let 
us  compare  the  percentage  of  those  over-age  with  that  of  those  "under- 
age." If  there  is  means  to  fall  behind  there  should  be  means  to  go 
ahead.  Here  are  the  figures  for  the  California  cities  which  represent 


(5) 


very  fairly  the  best  conditions  in  the  United  States  as  revealed  by  the 
statistics  of  the  United  States  Bureau: 

Over-age     ;  Under-age 


Los  Angeles 

_Boys 

41.6 

19 

Girls     

34.8 

1.4 

Pasadena  _ 

__Boys     --_  _  _  -  _  _  _      -  

43.8 

2.6 

Girls 

350 

33 

Alameda 

Boys 

472 

15 

Girls           - 

420 

21 

Fresno 

Boys        -  _  _  _ 

53.4 

.9 

Girls  

44.5 

1.4 

Stockton 

Boys  _ 

39.0 

3.9 

Girls  

30.7 

3.9 

The  impossibility  of  gaining  ground  in  the  school  system  is  therefore 
made  clear.  The  number  of  pupils  who  are  capable  to  advance  appre- 
ciably faster  than  the  average  we  know  to  be  a  fairly  large  proportion 
— probably  in  the  vicinity  of  thirty  to  forty  per  cent.  But  the  number 
who  actually  do  so  is,  as  shown,  a  negligible  quantity — the  essential 
principle  of  the  class  system  forbids  it.  Among  the  39,739  pupils  in 
the  California  cities  cited  only  850  have  gained  one  year  and  only 
thirty  have  gained  more  than  one  year.  If  the  quick-witted  pupils 
can  not  gain  ground  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  slower  pupils,  who  have 
not  been  able  even  to  maintain  the  ' '  average, ' '  can  never  regain  ground 
once  lost.  Our  system,  therefore,  compels  laggardism  and  permits  no 
individual  advance  or  recovery  by  any  means  except  accident. 

The  Cause  of  Over-age. 

Since  these  facts  of  over-age,  as  shown,  seemingly  are  not  affected 
by  the  accepted  standards  of  efficiency  in  teachers  and  administration, 
it  follows  that  the  cause  of  over-age  must  lie  in  some  common  condition 
of  all  schools,  which  no  effort  has  yet  been  made  to  displace. 

We  have  a  condition  that  fulfills  just  these  conditions  common  to  all 
school  systems,  and  which  clearly  predetermines  just  the  results  which 
statistics  have  laid  bare. 

THIS  IS  THE  GRADED  CLASS  SYSTEM  ITSELF,  WITH  ITS  LOCK-STEP  OF 
PROGRESS  AND  PROMOTION. 


(6) 


THE  MILLSTONE  THAT  HANGS  ABOUT  THE 
NECK  OF  THE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 


Our  school  system  represents  the  abiding  faith  of  the  people  that  it  is 
upon  the  efficiency  of  the  schooling  the  State  must  depend  for  the 
quality  of  its  citizenship,  for  the  integrity  of  its  social  institutions  and 
for  the  material  prosperity  of  individuals.  In  this  faith  the  people 
set  apart,  more  than  one  half  their  revenues  derived  by  direct  tax- 
ation, and  they  do  so  freely,  cheerfully  and  confidently.  The  best 
energies  of  their  intelligence  have  been  spent  in  devising  and  shaping 
ultimate  goals  of  this  schooling,  an  earnest  body  of  teachers  rendering 
the  service  of  the  soul  to  make  this  school  system  harvest  what  the 
people  hope  and  believe  should  be  the  products.  Yet,  despite  the  faith, 
despite  the  magnificent  equipment  and  administration  and  despite  the 
fidelity  of  the  workers,  an  inexplicable  canker  of  inefficiency,  as  shown 
by  foregoing  figures,  somewhere  and  somehow  prevents  the  full  and 
legitimate  fruiting  of  our  school  system.  We  have  neglected  to  scruti- 
nize what  has  been  handed  down  to  us  by  the  dead  hand  of  tradition. 
We  are  using  as  the  chief  operating  tool  a  mechanism  that  makes  any 
reasonable  degree  of  success  impossible.  The  results  show  it. 

The  class  system  has  been  modeled  upon  the  military  system.  It  is 
constructed  upon  the  assumption  that  a  group  of  minds  can  be  mar- 
shaled and  controlled  in  growth  in  exactly  the  same  manner  that  a 
military  officer  marshals  and  directs  the  bodily  movements  of  a  company 
of  soldiers.  In  solid  unbreakable  phalanx  the  class  is  supposed  to  move 
through  the  grades,  keeping  in  locked  step.  This  locked  step  is  set  by 
the  "average"  pupil — an  algebraic  myth  born  of  inanimate  figures  and 
an  "addled  pedagogy.  Under  this  fundamental  assumption  the  follow- 
ing conditions  necessarily  must  be  forced: 

I.  That  all  pupils  in  a  given  class  shall  be  assigned,  and  shall  master 
with  even  thoroughness,  exactly  the  same  length  of  lesson  each  day. 

Otherwise  there  would  be  no  class.  Unless  the  length  of  daily  lesson 
is  fixed,  and  even  thoroughness  of  comprehension  is  assumed,  the  pupils 
would  string  out  tandem  and  instruction  would  necessarily  become 
individual. 

In  actual  experience  the  requirement  is  impossible,  and  uniformity 
is  a  threadbare  semblance.  While  some  pupils  do  prepare  the  lessons 
to  the  exacted  length,  others  do  not  do  so,  and,  under  any  conditions,  a 
uniform  comprehension  is  always  a  mirage  of  stupid  assumption.  The 
class  system  has  no  remedy  for  this  state  of  affairs.  All  that  the  teacher 
can  do  is  to  carry  the  class  along  over  the  established  route,  somehow, 
upon  schedule  time,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year,  or  half  year,  sort  them 
out.  Some  are  sent  on,  and  others,  who  have  stumbled  and  lost  step, 
must  be  sent  back  to  do  the  work  of  the  year  or  half  year  over  again. 
Such  is  the  chief  cause  of  over-age.  It  is  quite  obvious  that  the  failures, 

(7) 


under  these  conditions,  are  not  due  to  faults  that  pupils  themselves 
can  overcome,  or  the  teachers  avoid,  but  they  are  due  to  the  false  and 
impossible  assumptions  of  the  system  itself.  The  school  has  no  right 
to  assume  what  is  manifestly  impossible — that  all  pupils  of  a  class, 
despite  physical  and  mental  differences,  despite  accidents  and  other 
exigencies  which  life  constantly  entails,  can  or  will  daily  learn  the  same 
length  of  lessons  with  even  comprehension. 

A  debilitating  by-product  of  measuring  out  of  uniform  lessons  is 
the  establishment,  early  in  the  child's  plastic  mind,  that  the  thing  to 
do  in  life  is  to  do  what  is  measured  out  for  one  to  do — never  any  more, 
under  any  circumstances,  and  as  much  less  as  possible,  under  all  cir- 
cumstances. This  soul-withering  dogma,  hammered  by  the  class  system 
into  the  growing  mind,  becomes  the  life  doctrine  which  is  largely 
accountable  for  prevailing  inefficiency  and  failures  in  life  work.  It 
is  recognized  that  this  schoolbred  falsity  is  a  very  general  and  notice- 
able characteristic  of  the  school  and  college  graduate  upon  entering 
life  occupations. 

II.  The  graded  system  assumes  that  all  pupils,  during  the  school 
exercise,  shall  pay  exactly  the  same  degree  of  attention,  and  shall  reach 
comprehension  by  exactly  the  same  mental  process,  and  shall  reach  it 
simultaneously. 

We  all  remember  that  the  first  thing  our  first  teacher  said  at  the 
beginning  of  the  first  day  we  ever  went  to  school,  was,  ' '  Class !  Atten- 
tion!" She  and  her  successors  kept  right  on  saying  the  same  thing, 
many  times  every  hour  of  every  day,  during  all  the  years  we  ever  went 
to  school. 

Literally  translated,  this  saying  means:  "Now,  sit  up,  straight, 
stringent  and  still.  Stiffen  your  muscles — heads  to  the  front.  Fix 
your  eyes  on  me — all  of  you.  Think  about  the  one  thing  I  tell  you 
to  think  about,  in  just  the  way  I  tell  you  to  think  about  it,  and  keep 
right  on  thinking  about  it  for  as  long  a  time  as  I,  acting  in  obedience 
to  the  school  program,  feel  you  ought  to  think  about  it.  Then  I  will 
look  at  the  program  and  tell  you  what  next  to  think  about." 

To  force  one  pupil  to  give  attention  to  a  prescribed  topic  is  a  task 
worthy  of  any  pedagogic  steel.  But  reflect  a  moment  upon  the  assump- 
tion of  the  system  that  a  teacher  can  and  shall  force  forty  pupils  to 
put  themselves  in  this  unnatural  state,  simultaneously,  and  maintain 
it  for  ten  to  forty  minutes  at  a  stretch,  day  in  and  day  out.  To  main- 
tain forced  attention  for  more  than  a  few  seconds  is  impossible.  What 
our  minds  really  do  is  to  slip  and  rest  and  then  take  a  fresh  grip  to 
bring  the  state  back  again.  Learning  in  classes  under  this  requirement 
of  forced  attention  is  one  continual  body-wriggling,  brain-fagging, 
nerve-frazzling  and  soul-soddening  struggle  to  yield  a  juiceless  atten- 
tion, to  fight  against  distractions  with  yielding  steps,  and  to  suffer  a 
racking  fatigue  that  knows  no  to-morrow.  There  is  no  escape  except 
into  the  restful  stupidity  of  chronic  inattention. 

I  have  not  overdrawn  the  picture.  We  are  simply  accustomed  to  the 
spectacle.  We  have  become  numb  to  it.  The  worst  consideration  is  to 

(8) 


come.  If  out  of  this  tremendous  school  effort  to  force  simultaneous 
class  attention  there  were  results,  then  might  we  balance  profits  and 
find  mitigating  circumstances.  But  when  we  reflect  upon  the  aston- 
ishing littleness  of  what  the  school  teaches  in  its  long  years  of  attend- 
ance, compared  with  what  boys  and  girls  learn  under  free  and  natural 
attention  out  of  school  in  short  periods,  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  realization  that  the  withered  tree  has  in  truth  yielded  withered 
fruit.  It  is  just  what  we  should  expect.  The  effort  to  force  and  hold 
the  mind  in  that  state  of  vacuous  attention  preliminary  to  actual  learn- 
ing uses  probably  80  to  95  per  cent  of  the  total  physical  and  mental 
fncrgy  of  an  individual.  This  leaves  only  5  to  20  per  cent  of  energy 
ivith  which  to  learn  the  lesson  the  teacher  has  started  out  to  teach.  The 
most  strenuous  and  dutiful  of  pupils,  wriggle  physically  and  mentally 
as  they  will,  can  not  and  do  not  pay  attention  in  a  class  recitation 
except  intermittently.  The  knitted  sequence  of  argument  the  teacher 
may  have  carefully  prepared  is  grasped  only  here  and  there.  Let  us 
realize  that  never  at  any  one  time,  in  the  most  dutiful  of  classes,  are 
more  than  one  third  to  one  half  the  pupils  paying  their  feeble  but  best 
attention.  Years  of  trained  experience  in  simulating  the  appearance 
of  attention  has  made  most  of  them  past  masters  of  the  art. 

Our  entire  school  system,  from  kindergarten  through  the  university, 
both  inclusive,  is  therefore  operated  with  fearful  waste  of  energy,  and 
its  undertakings  are  ever  under  the  tremendous  handicap  of  low-power 
and  intermittent  attention.  These  conditions  necessarily  mean  slow 
and  foggy  learning  and  corresponding  ease  of  forgetting.  Nor,  under 
the  class  system,  is  there  any  means  whatever  of  remedying  the  situa- 
tion. As  long  as  we  persist  in  a  system  which  lays  the  condition  as 
necessary  that  forty  pupils  must  pay  simultaneous,  even,  and  continu- 
ous attention  to  an  imposed  subject  of  study  we  must  content  ourselves 
with  a  degree  of  attention  of  such  low  power  that  invention,  orginality 
and  reasoning  are  impossible.  All  that  we  can  ever  get  out  of  this 
system  is  just  what  we  always  have  gotten — a  feeble  ability  to  memorize 
words  and  texts  and  a  corresponding  evanescence  of  memory  of  them. 
Is  there  any  teacher  in  the  land  who  will  gainsay  this  truth  ? 

Yet,  outside  the  unnatural  conditions  of  the  school,  in  life  itself,  there 
is  another  kind  of  attention,  of  high-power  intensity,  and  by  which, 
frequently,  wide  reaches  of  comprehension  are  spanned  as  by  a  light- 
ning flash.  It  is  by  this  kind  of  attention  that  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries are  made,  conquests  won,  new  trails  of  civilization  blazed  and 
memory  made  intelligent  and  indellible.  This  may  be  called  dynamic 
thinking.  But  the  flickering,  low-power  attention  which  the  forced 
conditions  of  the  lock-step  class  at  best  can  produce  never  approaches 
this  dynamic  state.  By  forced  attention,  galley  slaves  worked,  and  the 
muscle  labor  of  erecting  the  pyramids  was  goaded.  By  forced  attention 
the  pyramids  were  not  conceived;  nor  by  it  was  poem  ever  written, 
invention  or  discovery  ever  made,  wrong  ever  righted  or  soul  ever 
saved.  As  long  as  the  school  remains  content  with  the  glowworm 
degree  of  attention,  which  is  the  best  the  lock-step  system  has  ever 

(9) 


given  or  can  ever  hope  to  give,  so  long  must  pupils  work  in  the  school 
room  at  a  snail's  pace  and  with  glowworm  degree  of  mentality. 

III.  The  graded  class  system  assumes  that  all  pupils  shall  make 
exactly   the  same  rate   of  progress  and  promotion,  despite   absences, 
despite  illnesses,  despite  all  variations  in  physical  and  mental  condi- 
tions,  despite   all   differences  in   ambition,   in   temperament,   and   in 
degrees  of  resulting  application. 

The  class  system,  by  its  fundamental  dogmas,  is  forced  to  ignore 
and  deny  the  existence  of  these  varying  contingencies  and  to  assume, 
in  practice,  the  obvious  absurdity  that  no  pupil  in  the  class  will  ever 
be  absent,  sick,  or  vary  from  the  standard  of  application.  The  class 
system  has  no  devices  to  meet  any  contingency.  There  is  no  alternative 
except  to  wait  until  the  end  of  the  term  or  year  and  turn  the  misfits 
back  over  the  work  with  resultant  over-age. 

IV.  Measuring  one  pupil  according  to  the  abilities  of  other  pupils. 
Under  the  class  system  the  pupil  is  marked  and  rated  by  comparison 

with  the  mythical  average  pupil.  Under  this  assumption  a  certain 
number  necessarily  must  always  be  above  this  average,  and  another 
group,  by  the  same  necessity,  must  ever  be  below  this  average.  Other- 
wise, there  would  be  no  average.  It  is  obvious  that  if  the  general 
diligence  and  quality  of  each  member  of  the  class  should  be  raised, 
however  much,  this  comparative  basis  would  require  that  the  "aver- 
age" should  also  be  raised  and  a  certain  number  would  still  be  rated 
as  inferior.  Laggardism  is  therefore  a  condition  necessarily  created 
by  the  system  itself,  for  if  we  establish  an  ' '  average ' '  it  at  once  means 
that  nearly  one  half  the  class  must  ever  be  rated  as  inferior. 

The  terms  "excellent,"  "fair,"  poor"  upon  the  report  cards  mean 
not  what  the  pupil  has  done,  measured  by  his  own  abilities,  but  what 
he  has  done  measured  by  other  persons'  abilities.  What  little  Billy 
needs  to  know  is  how  he  measures  up  with  the  talents  God  has  given 
little  Billy,  and  it  is  quite  immaterial  and  irrelevant  to  him  how  little 
Billy  measures  up  to  the  standard  of  the  talents  God  has  given  Tommy 
or  Mary.  This  system  serves  no  educational  purpose  whatever.  It 
makes  representations  which  are  grossly  deceiving  to  teacher,  parent 
and  to  the  pupil  himself.  This  comparative  rating  is  beyond  the  con- 
trol of  any  individual.  In  practice  we  find  that  pupils,  once  discour- 
aged, tend  to  sink  to  the  lower  levels  in  every  class.  This  false  stamp 
of  inferiority  is  constantly  hammered  into  them,  by  the  class  markings, 
for  years.  Can  we  estimate  the  effects  of  this  false,  irrelevant,  com- 
parative rating  upon  subsequent  life  character,  confidence  and  life 

success  ? 

., 

V.  The  class  system  does  permanent  violence  to  all  types  of  pupils. 
(1)   It  does  injury  to  the  rapid  and  quick-thinking  pupils,  because 

these  must  shackle  their  stride  to  keep  pace  with  the  rate  of  the  myth- 
ical average.  They  do  so,  usually,  at  the  price  of  interest  in  their  work. 
Their  energy  is  directed  into  illegitimate  activities  with  the  result  that 


(10) 


in  the  intermediate  grades  a  large  portion  of  them  fall  into  the  class 
of  uninterested,  inattentive,  rebellious,  and  unmanageable  pupils. 

(2)  The  class  system  does  a  greater  injury  to  the  large  number  who 
make  progress  slower  than  the  rate  of  the  mythical  average  pupil. 
Necessarily  they  are  carried  off  their  feet  by  the  momentum  of  the 
mass.  They  may  struggle  along,  with  greater  or  less  pretense,  but 
eventually  they  are  discovered  and  put  back  into  the  next  lower  class. 
The  standard  of  progress  should  be  set,  not  by  the  average,  but  at  what 
the  slowest  pupil  can  do  in  the  given  school  time,  and  provide  that 
those  who  by  diligence  or  more  rapid  progress  can  profit  by  these 
qualities  shall  advance  accordingly.  By  setting  the  pace  of  a  mathe- 
matical average,  education  for  nearly  one  half  the  class  is  made  impos- 
sible. They  are  foredoomed  to  failure  before  they  begin.  They  are 
foredoomed  not  because  of  any  factor  within  their  control,  but  because 
the  standard  having  been  set  in  the  middle  of  the  class,  nearly  one 
half  necessarily  fall  below  it.  The  figures  show  the  result — one  third 
to  one  half  the  pupils  remaining  in  the  schools  are  over-age — not 
counting  "considerably  more"  than  fifty  per  cent  who  have  left  largely 
because  of  over-age.  The  class  system  has  no  right  to  set  a  pace  which 
necessarily  a  large  percentage,  or  for  that  matter  any  percentage,  can 
not  possibly  maintain.  This  policy  is  of  course  as  inhuman  as  it  is 
stupid. 

The  Unmeasured  Evils  of  the  Class  System. 

We  have  viewed  the  evils  of  the  locked-step  class  system  from  the 
standpoint  of  statistics  and  some  of  its  measurable  results.  While 
those  facts  are  in  themselves  appalling,  they  are,  in  all  probability,  far 
from  the  worst  features.  We  have  not  considered  what  must  be  the 
effects  upon  character,  upon  ambition,  upon  legitimate  self-pride, 
upon  all  the  motives  that  make  for  -success  and  individuality  in  later 
life.  We  have  not  tried  to  estimate  what  it  must  mean  to  subsequent 
life  and  character  to  shamble  through  the  school  course,  as  all  pupils 
must,  in  lock-step  with  a  mythical  average — to  walk,  moreover,  with  no 
inspiration  from  individual  motives  or  goals,  but  ever  goaded  and 
restrained  only  by  the  juiceless  requirement  to  keep  the  step.  We 
have  not  attempted  to  realize  the  effects  upon  personal  ambition  of  those 
who  "repeat,"  who  know  themselves  over-age,  and  feel  that  the  eye 
of  contempt  from  their  fellows  is  ever  upon  them.  Can  we  picture  to 
ourselves  the  state  of  mind  of  the  little  people  who  are  turned  back  to 
rotravel  for  a  half  or  whole  year  the  road  over  which  they  have  already 
stumbled,  and  what  scars  upon  character  this  bitter  experience  must 
leave  ?  After  fifty  per  cent  of  the  pupils  in  the  school  system  have  been 
exterminated  by  the  time  they  have  reached  the  sixth  grade,  twenty 
per  cent  to  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  survivors  know  they  should  be 
in  the  seventh  grade,  ten  per  cent  to  fifteen  per  cent  know  they  should 
be  in  the  eighth,  and  five  to  eight  per  cent  know  they  should  be  in  the 
high  school  grades.  And  the  ratios  grow  worse  with  each  succeeding 
grade.  Still  worse,  these  pupils  know  there  is  no  power  of  individual 
effort  which  can  help  their  situation.  Can  we  feel  the  scalding  humil- 

(11) 


iation  of  these  little  children,  who,  under  the  rules  of  the  system,  are 
hourly  and  daily  measured  by  the  lock-step  with  a  mythical  average 
pupil?  They  are  regarded  as  stupid,  hopeless,  and  fit  only  to  be 
diggers  of  earth  and  bearers  of  water.  They  themselves  are  forced  by 
the  marks  to  disbelieve  in  themselves,  to  feel  that  they  are  inferior,  to 
conclude  there  is  something  out  of  gear  in  their  thinking  apparatus. 
In  most  cases  we  may  safely  say  they  have  been  grossly  misrepresented 
by  the  class  system.  Like  distorted  reflections  one  sees  of  himself  in  an 
imperfect  mirror,  the  error  is  in  the  mirror,  not  in  the  person.  The 
class  system  is  such  an  imperfect  mirror,  and  thousands  of  young 
people  yearly  start  life  with  pictures  of  themselves  which  are  the 
grossest  caricatures  of  truth,  and  thus,  without  belief  or  confidence, 
are  foredoomed  as  life  failures. 

Are  Not  These  Things  True? 

Could  any  system  be  more  stupid  in  its  assumptions,  more  impossible 
in  its  conditions,  and  more  juggernautic  in  its  operation?  Every  one 
of  its  premises  is  palpably  false ;  every  one  of  its  requirements  is  impos- 
sible and  every  one  of  its  effects  is  inefficient  and  brutal.  Nevertheless 
this  system  has  endured  and  has  been  endured  for  centuries. 

The  Defense  of  the  Lock-step  Dogma. 

The  only  defenses  ever  offered  for  the  failures  and  brutalities  of 
the  class  system  resolve  themselves  into  pitiable  pleas  that  no  substitute 
has  ever  been  established,  and  that  it  is  an  easy  system  for  administra- 
tive bookkeeping.  If  little  Billy  falls  into  the  system's  discard,  it  is  a 
simpler  bookkeeping  to  enter  Billy  as  a  failure  than  to  enter  the 
system  as  a  failure,  and  to  consign  Billy,  rather  than  the  system,  to  the 
ash  heap.  The  system  is  not  constructed  upon  sound  principles,  to 
teach  children.  It  is  a  crude  and  primitive  machine  which  falsely 
measures  and  cruelly  maims  the  victims  of  its  own  impossibilities.  Its 
existence  is  a  fearful  indictment  of  us  who  are  in  charge  of  education 
— of  our  intelligence,  of  our  honesty,  of  our  sense  of  personal  responsi- 
bility. 

The  Origin  of  the  System. 

The  system  was  framed  upon  the  Lacedemonian  doctrine  of  the 
survival  only  of  the  strong.  It  was  perfected  in  the  Middle  Ages 
when  the  insane  and  feeble-minded  were  chained  and  caged,  and  when 
criminals  were  fiendishly  tortured  and  when  the  lash  was  the  only 
means  used  for  moral  and  mental  training.  But,  to  its  credit,  under 
the  Lacedemonian  system,  the  weak  were  exposed  upon  the  mountains 
and  thereby  mercifully  put  to  death  outright,  while  in  our  modern 
world  those  maimed  by  the  locked-step  class  system  of  our  schools  are 
stunted  in  world  life  to  become  its  social,  civil  and  moral  problems. 
The  dogmas  upon  which  the  class  system  are  built  have  long  since  been 
uprooted  in  other  fields.  In  the  treatment  of  the  insane,  feeble-minded, 
and  criminals,  modern  systems  have  taken  their  places,  but  in  the 
education  of  our  normal  healthy  children  we  traditionally  retain  this 
relic  of  ancient  ignorance  and  barbarity. 

(12) 


The  Lost  Mainspring. 

Let  us  remember  that  it  is  only  recently  the  schoolmasters  lost,  or 
rather  were  forced  by  civilization's  demands  to  throw  away,  the  only 
tool  by  which  the  system  has  been  even  fairly  operated.  This  tool 
was  the  lash.  Without  the  free  use  of  the  lash  which  the  schoolmaster 
under  the  old  conditions  employed  it  is  impossible  to  maintain  even  a 
reasonable  degree  of  class  attention,  to  goad  the  slow,  to  stimulate 
the  lazy,  and  to  keep  the  rapid  marking  time  without  rebellion.  The 
lash  is  to  the  lock-step  system  what  the  mainspring  is  to  a  steel  clock. 
When  modern  humanity  wrested  the  lash  from  the  schoolmaster,  the 
class  system  became  as  dead  and  as  unusuable  junk  as  a  clock  without 
a  mainspring.  The  lock-step  system  can  not  be  operated  by  moral 
suasion  or  by  any  of  the  other  soft  sibilants  which  a  modern  maudlin 
pedagogy  has  sought  to  substitute.  The  experience  of  the  past  fifty 
years  and  the  black  figures  of  statistics  demonstrate  this  fact  beyond 
question  or  cavil.  As  well  might  we  attempt  to  operate  a  steel  clock 
by  means  of  a  putty  mainspring. 

Two  Obvious  Alternatives. 

If  we  are  to  make  the  class  system  even  tolerably  effective,  if  we 
expect  to  secure  any  modicum  of  attention,  energy  and  order,  then 
we  must  permit  the  schoolmaster  again  to  draw  forth  his  lash,  for  it 
was  under  the  axiomatic  assumption  of  its  thorough  use  that  the  class 
lock-step  system  was  invented  and  perfected.  The  only  other  alterna- 
tive is  to  construct  a  new  schooling  system  especially  designed  to  be 
operated  by  machinery  entirely  different  from  that  of  the  old  type. 

The  Conditions  of  Any  Reform. 

I  wish  to  make  it  quite  clear  that  this  issue  of  the  class  system  is 
fundamental.  Within  the  past  few  years  there  have  been  put  forward 
to  relieve  the  admitted  moribundity  of  the  school  system  many  pro- 
posed reforms  by  means  of  new  subjects  and  materials  to  prepare  for 
world  efficiency.  Some  of  these  are  probably  sound  and  others  of 
course  are  mere  dreams.  But  whatever  their  virtues  in  theory,  their 
final  efficiency  in  practice  depends  upon  an  efficient  system  of  school 
instruction.  If  they  must  rest  upon  the  class  system  then  they  are 
foredoomed  in  practice.  Whatever  rejuvenation  there  may  be  in  voca- 
tional teaching,  agriculture,  modern  current  affairs,  civic  and  social 
betterment,  there  can  be  no  satisfactory  results  in  any  of  these  if  they 
are  hampered  by  the  deadening  effects  of  the  class  method  of  instruc- 
tion. And  already  the  spindling  results  of  "class"  vocational  teach- 
ing, "class"  agriculture,  "class"  nature  study  and  science,  etc.,  are 
before  us.  Whatever  virtue  there  may  be  in  these  subjects  themselves 
does  not  maintain  itself  when  run  through  the  mill  of  the  lock-step 
system.  The  first  step  in  education  must  be  to  provide  a  working 
system  of  instruction  that  will  make  it  possible  for  right  movements 
to  succeed. 


(13) 


A  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  THE  CLASS  LOCK-STEP. 


"Well,  then,  what  are  we  to  do  about  it?  The  facts  presented  are 
self-evident.  The  black  figures  of  over-age  are  a  measure  of  the  results. 
If  we  are  honest,  if  we  are  responsible,  we  no  longer  can  maintain  the 
deceptive  semblances  of  education  under  assumptions  that  are  false 
and  impossible.  The  alternative  is  to  establish  and  find  means  of  oper- 
ating a  system  of  schooling  which  rests  upon  the  truths  that  no  two 
pupils  are  alike  physically  and  mentally,  that  no  two  can  learn  at  the 
same  rate,  that  the  teacher  does  well  who  can  direct  the  attention  of 
one  pupil  instead  of  forty  simultaneosuly.  But  the  moment  we  cease 
forcing  the  lock-step  and  permit  varying  rates  of  progress,  the  pupils 
string  out  tandem.  The  class  has  disintegrated  and  the  class  methods 
also  disintegrate.  We  are  then  confronted  by  the  problem  of  how  to 
instruct,  efficiently,  forty  or  more  pupils  directed  by  one  teacher  under 
the  condition  that  no  two  pupils  are  identical  physically  or  mentally, 
that  each  probably  learns  by  processes  and  by  virtue  of  motives 
peculiarly  his  own  and  at  a  different  rate. 

It  is  this  situation  the  faculty  of  the  Normal  School  last  year  decided 
to  face  in  the  operation  of  our  elementary  department.  We  had  no 
ready-made  plan  of  reconstruction.  We  needed  none.  We  decided  to 
deal  with  each  new  problem  as  it  presented  itself;  not  to  turn  aside, 
constrict  and  probably  destroy  the  natural  currents  of  human  learning, 
as  the  lock-step  ever  seeks  to  do,  but  to  accept  the  human  mind  as  we 
find  it,  to  yield  to  the  pressure  of  these  currents,  to  cut  away  frictional 
obstructions  in  texts,  methods  and  system  and  to  assist  further  by 
devising  and  shaping  similar  conditions.  We  are  pursuing  this  alterna- 
tive course  to  its  logical  consequences.  We  are  astonished  at  our  imme- 
diate results — in  changed  school  spirit,  in  reawakened  young  ambitions 
and  energy,  in  rapidity  of  pupils'  progress  and  in  our  own  enthusiasm. 
We  have  not  framed  a  philosophy  of  the  course  we  are  following.  We 
do  not  know  altogether  the  final  end  or  its  significance.  But  it  is  quite 
clear,  let  me  frankly  and  earnestly  say,  that  these  results  are  not  so 
much  the  products  of  our  constructive  work  as  to  the  simple  fact  that 
the  burden  of  the  evils  arising  from  the  impossibilities  of  the  lock-step 
has  been  lifted  from  the  pupils. 

We  would  present  what  we  have  done  as  a  suggestion.  We  do  not 
in  any  sejase  present  these  outlines  as  finished.  We  do  not  believe  that 
it  is  the  only  solution  or  remedy  for  the  evils  of  the  lock-step.  Nor  is 
our  concern  to  establish  the  particular  form  of  substitute  our  experi- 
ence has  built  up.  But  we  are  concerned  that  some  efficient  system 
should  replace  the  existing  inefficient  system,  be  it  ours  or  any  other 
that  may  be  devised. 

New  Type  of  Texts  Necessary. 

Our  first  difficulty  has  been  in  the  matter  of  texts.  The  carrent  type 
of  school  texts  is  framed  in  language  which  is  not  comprehended  by 

(14) 


pupils,  and,  as  a  result,  the  words  of  it  merely  are  more  or  less  mem- 
orized and  the  meaning  is  largely  missed.  The  second  chief  defect  is 
that  these  texts  are  constructed  upon  the  false  assumption  that  all 
pupils  can  acquire  a  given  principle  by  studying  lessons  of  exactly 
the  same  length.  Thirdly,  the  current  texts,  in  no  adequate  way, 
provide  an  efficient  system  of  reviews.  Finally,  the  current  texts  are 
chiefly  made  up  of  facts  and  definitions  to  be  memorized.  In  the 
subjects  of  language,  arithmetic,  writing,  composition  and  other  formal 
subjects  the  object  to  be  reached  is  the  ability  to  do  certain  things.  It 
matters  little  that  a  pupil  has  learned  the  definition  of  a  sentence  if 
he  can  not  write  one,  and  it  matters  less  that  he  can  recite  the  multipli- 
cation tables,  if  he  makes  errors  in  the  use  of  them.  Therefore  in  the 
construction  of  exercise  books  we  have  supplanted  these  memorizing 
tasks  by  exercises  in  the  use  of  processes  learned. 

Reconstruction  of  Texts. 

Members  of  the  faculty  therefore  set  to  work  to  construct  texts,  or 
exercise  books,  in  the  several  subjects  which  could  be  profitably  and 
efficiently  used  by  pupils  in  a  way  to  provide  elasticity  in  the  number 
of  exercises  which  impress  a  given  principle,  to  place  large  premiums 
upon  accuracy  of  work  and  steady  application,  to  permit  variable  rates 
of  progress  and  to  include  many  other  features  not  easily  explained 
in  brief  space.  In  this  matter  we  have  been  considerably  assisted  by 
our  bulletin  exercise  books  published  by  this  Normal  School  in  past 
years,  and  which  lent  themselves  readily  to  adaptation.  The  begin- 
ning of  the  new  adjustment  was  made  with  a  few  higher  grammar 
grade  classes  in  November,  1912.  The  work  was  carried  on  in  imper- 
fect form,  owing  to  lack  of  proper  texts  and  mechanism  of  administra- 
tion, throughout  the  year.  In  February,  1913,  a  few  lower  classes  were 
included  in  the  new  adjustment.  With  the  beginning  of  the  present 
year  we  are  in  much  better  position  to  carry  forward  the  new  work. 
We  have  prepared,  in  mimeograph  form  and  in  adapted  exercise  books, 
materials  for  nearly  all  grades  and  classes  in  arithmetic,  language, 
grammar,  writing,  primary  reading,  formal  geography,  and  to  some 
degree  in  history.  These  materials  will  be  subject  to  constant  correc- 
tion as  practical  experience  directs,  and  later  will  be  published  as  parts 
of  our  Normal  School  bulletin  series. 

Principles  in  Text  Reconstruction. 

The  main  principles  of  construction  of  these  text  exercises  may  be 
stated  in  general  as  follows: 

I.     Absence  of  Abstract  Explanations. 

In  the  first  stages,  principles  are  learned,  not  from  abstract  explana- 
tions either  of  text  or  teachers,  but  by  imitating  and  doing  like  exer- 
cises. After  a  fund  of  these  facts  and  habits  are  acquired,  explanations, 
in  extreme  simplicity  of  language,  follow.  The  steps  leading  up  to 
each  principle  are  graded  and  simple  so  that  the  pupil  can  master  the 
problem  by  his  own  independent  effort,  without,  as  a  rule,  help  from 

(15) 


the  teacher.  Nothing  is  more  important  than  to  train  the  pupil  to  be 
helpful  to  himself,  and  to  this  end  the  first  stages  are  made  extremely 
easy  that  he  may  not  be  discouraged. 

II.  One  New  Difficulty  at  a  Time. 

Each  lesson  contains  no  more  than  one  new  thing  to  be  learned. 
All  other  material  is  familiar  and  in  review.  The  attention  is  there- 
fore concentrated,  without  confusion,  upon  the  new  thing.  Each  new 
thing,  process  or  principle,  once  introduced,  is  reviewed  by  a  cumula- 
tive and  automatic  system  covering  a  period  of  months  or  even  years. 

III.  Elasticity  in  the  Length  of  Lessons. 

The  lessons  to  teach  new  principles  or  processes  are  constructed 
upon  an  elastic  plan.  There  are  duplicate  exercises  and  generally 
many  more  of  them  than  most  pupils  will  need  to  work.  If  a  pupil 
wrorks  accurately  certain  of  these  exercises  he  skips  many  of  the  dupli- 
cates and  passes  on  to  the  next  lesson.  About  sixty  per  cent  of  any 
given  course  is  made  up  of  these  duplicates  which  by  accurate  work 
may  be  skipped.  A  tremendous  premium  is  thereby  offered  for 
accuracy.  The  pupils  of  slower  grasp  do  as  many  of  the  duplicates, 
under  an  automatic  system,  as  may  be  necessary  to  secure  accuracy 
in  efficient  degree.  By  this  device  of  an  elastic  length  of  lessons  the 
text  is  made  to  fit  the  individual  needs  of  the  different  pupils  and  no 
pupil  proceeds  until  he  has  laid  a  safe  foundation.  On  the  other  hand, 
pupils  do  no  more  than  is  necessary  for  the  purpose. 

IV.  Automatic  Reviews. 

Subsequent  reviews,  embodied  in  the  regular  lessons,  take  care  of  the 
retention  of  what  is  once  learned  and  the  system  of  elasticity  is  made 
to  apply  also  to  these  reviews  in  a  definite  automatic  way.  Instead 
of  testing  pupils'  thoroughness  of  comprehension  at  intervals  of  a  year 
or  six  months,  these  automatic  tests  are  inserted  at  extremely  short 
intervals,  and  if  a  pupil  needs  more  drill  it  is  given  immediately,  before 
he  meets  greater  difficulties.  It  is  far  more  economical  in  time  to  see 
that  each  brick  of  the  foundation  is  firm  rather  than  to  wait  until  the 
whole  foundation  is  laid  wTith  the  possibility  of  being  obliged  to  com- 
mence all  over  again.  These  review  tests  generally  are  worked  into  the 
body  of  the  lessons  so  that  the  pupil  does  not  recognize  them  as  such. 
The  tests  are  followed  by  corrective  exercises ;  those  pupils  who  do  the 
test  without  error  skip  the  corrective  exercises  while  only  those  who 
need  corrective  work  are  given  it. 

The  Individual  Schoolroom  in  Operation. 

There  are  few  recitations,  either  by  class  or  by  individuals,  in  the 
the  subjects  for  which  we  have  constructed  exercise  books,  except  the 
Socratic  discussion  hereafter  to  be  explained.  The  pupils  work  at  their 
desks  upon  different  lessons,  it  may  be,  and  often  in  different  subjects. 
These  exercise  books  are  constructed  so  as  to  present  the  subject  that 
the  pupil  may  work  out  for  himself  the  lessons ;  and  also,  by  a  different 
type  of  lesson,  they  serve  as  a  substitute  for  most  forms  of  the  recita- 
tion. Under  the  class  system  only  one  pupil  here  and  there  is  called 

(16) 


upon,  and  only  for  a  small  part  of  the  lesson.  Under  the  individual 
plan  every  pupil  is  called  upon,  through  his  exercise  look,  for  every 
essential  item  of  the  lesson. 

The  principal  function  of  the  teacher  in  the  individual  school  is  to 
get  acquainted  with  her  pupils  in  a  personal  way,  to  learn  what  each 
is  capable  of  doing  and  the  motives  which  impel  them,  to  keep  herself 
accurately  familiar  with  the  progress  each  is  making  and  to  stimulate 
by  deserved  commendation,  suggestion  and  by  other  devices  her  inge- 
nuity may  invent.  We  started  out  with  the  assumption  that  the  teacher 
should  pass  from  pupil  to  pupil  dispensing  help.  But  experience  has 
very  forcibly  brought  home  the  realization  that  this  is  the  one  thing  the 
teacher  should  not  do.  Nothing  is  more  debilitating  to  the  independent 
thinking  of  the  pupil.  In  the  long  run  the  teacher's  help  of  this  kind 
retards  the  pupil's  progress,  because  substantial  learning  can  only 
be  secured  by  putting  one's  own  mind  through  the  given  process.  In 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  both  teacher  and  pupil  are  deceived  to  believe  that 
teacher-thinking  is  pupil-thinking.  When  the  same  difficulty  recurs 
the  pupil  is  as  badly  off  as  before,  and,  besides,  he  is  acquiring  a  habit 
of  dependence  when  difficulties  are  met.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  the 
difficulties  must  not  be  so  great  and  so  perpendicular  that  pupils  become 
discouraged.  The  remedy  for  this  situation  lies  in  the  construction 
of  the  text.  The  present  type  of  texts  is  merely  a  memory  press.  To 
the  end  of  solving  this  difficulty,  our  exercise  books  arrange,  grade  and 
lead  the  pupil  by  imitation  at  first.  When  the  pupil  has  acquired  a 
fund  of  experience  he  is  given  types  of  examples  which  exercise  con- 
structive thinking  upon  his  own  part.  The  teacher  must  keep  in  touch 
with  the  pupil's  efforts,  but  only  interfere  as  a  measure  of  last  resort, 
and  then  only  by  suggestive  questioning. 

Under  the  class  system  the  teacher  too  often  does  not  become  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  her  pupils  in  a  useful  way.  She  knows  them  in 
terms  of  their  school  discipline  and  this  knowledge  is  generally  dis- 
torted by  the  unnatural  conditions  which  the  class  system  imposes. 
Or,  she  knows  them  in  the  distorted  image  of  comparison  with  others 
in  school  markings.  What  a  revelation  it  is  to  teachers  to  become 
acquainted  humanly  with  their  pupils  under  the  natural  conditions 
out  of  school.  Frequently  they  do  not  seem  the  same  children.  The 
relation  of  pupil  and  teacher  under  the  individual  system  is  much  like 
that  out  of  school.  The  teacher's  work  has  shifted  from  the  class 
composite  to  various  individuals.  The  tenseness  of  the  disciplinary 
relationship  has  greatly  lessened  and  she  can  be  in  reality  what  she 
should  be — a  helper.  This  is  an  important  difference. 

The  Spirit  of  the  Schoolroom. 

A  schoolroom  of  pupils  working  under  the  individual  plan  is  very 
noticeable,  even  in  a  superficial  way,  for  its  virtues.  Our  visitors  are 
invariably  struck  with  the  spirit  of  earnestness  and  personal  absorp- 
tion of  each  pupil  in  his  work.  The  ancient  problems  of  discipline 
have  to  a  very  large  extent  disappeared.  Teachers  are  not  forever 
calling  "attention"  nor  admonishing  William  "to  get  to  work,"  and 

(17) 


* '  turn  around  in  your  seat ! ' '  The  rooms  are  quiet,  and  the  tenseness 
of  relation  between  a  teacher  in  doubtful  command,  and  pupils  under 
questionable  control,  has  given  way  to  cordiality.  The  teacher  has 
little  to  excite  her  nerves  and  each  pupil  feels  he  has  too  much  to  do 
worth  his  doing  to  waste  any  time  in  idleness  or  mischief.  The  inatten- 
tive, the  mischievous  and  the  idle  are  greatly  reduced  in  number 
because  the  cause  of  these  diseases — the  uselessness  of  individual  effort, 
the  purposelessness  of  ambition,  and  sundry  other  by-products  of 
the  class  lock-step  have  been  removed.  The  spirit  of  personal  ambition 
in  most  pupils  is  very  tense.  I  do  not  know  that  pupils  have  become 
more  ambitious,  but  under  the  lock-step  there  is  not  much  use  worry- 
ing about  advancement,  for  this  is  a  class  affair,  not  clearly  a  personal 
issue,  as  under  the  individual  system  it  wholly  is. 

Still,  I  do  not  wish  to  convey  the  idea  that  the  individual  system, 
in  the  degree  and  form  we  at  present  have  introduced  it,  has  reached 
the  ideal.  There  remains  with  us  a  certain  residuum.  But  if  the 
working  spirit  of  the  pupils  further  improves  with  the  perfecting  of 
the  texts  and  of  administration,  then  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  a  very  high  degree  of  school  efficiency  is  entirely  within  reach. 

The  Course  of  Study  and  Promotions. 

We  are  now  engaged  in  adjusting  a  course  of  study  for  the  elemen- 
tary school  of  eight  years.  The  time  and  allotment  of  material  of  each 
subject  in  each  grade  must  be  determined  by  what  the  slowest  pupils 
reasonably  can  cover  in  one  year,  allowing  some  time  also  for  absences. 
Pupils  who  can  finish  the  work  in  less  time  simply  pass  on  to  the  next 
grade  at  any  time.  This  provision  corrects  the  error  of  the  class  system 
by  which  the  standard  is  set  for  the  average  pupil,  or  in  practice  above 
the  average,  thereby  requiring  one  half  the  class  at  least  to  pass  over 
the  work  too  hurriedly  and  foredooming  a  large  percentage  to  repeat 
the  grade.  Under  our  plan  the  division  points  of  the  grade  and  half 
grades  in  each  subject  are  clearly  fixed  and  definitely  known  by  the 
pupils  in  advance.  Each  knows  and  sees  these  half  grade  posts  ahead 
of  him.  When  he  reaches  one  he  is  handed  t\  certificate  of  promotion 
in  this  subject,  .for  example,  as  follows: 


ELEMENTARY    DEPARTMENT 

SAN  FRANCISCO  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 
CERTIFICATE  OF  PROMOTION 


This   certifies   that   Frank   Smith   is   promoted   to   the 
high  fourth  grade  in  arithmetic. 
October  12,  1913. 

SAMUEL  BROWN,  Supervisor. 


(18) 


The  pupil  does  not  necessarily  change  his  room  by  being  promoted. 
He  continues  his  work  in  the  new  grade  and  remains  until  the  classes 
are  reorganized  at  the  end  of  the  half  year.  He  will  then  be  placed 
in  a  group  of  pupils  who  are  approximately  together.  This  promotion 
in  arithmetic  does  not  affect  nor  is  affected  by  progress  or  lack  of 
progress  in  other  subjects  at  this  time. 

Elasticity  in  the  Number  of  Lessons  per  Week. 

At  the  end  of  the  half  year  an  inventory  is  taken  of  the  standing 
of  each  pupil  in  the  several  subjects  pursued  by  him.  If  he  is 
advancing  more  rapidly  in  a  certain  subject  than  in  the  others,  then 
the  number  of  periods  he  can  work  upon  this  subject  is  lessened  and 
the  time  given  to  those  in  which  he  is  not  so  far  advanced.  In  this 
way  the  pupil  is  kept  balanced  as  to  grade  and  transfer  to  other  schools 
is  made  possible. 

The  device  by  which  pupils  can  take  a  variable  number  of  lessons 
per  week  is  very  simple  under  an  individual  system.  Since  each  pupil 
in  the  schoolroom  is  working  individually  it  makes  little  difference 
that  some  should  be  working  upon  different  subjects  from  others.  Some 
can  have  eight  periods  a  week  in  arithmetic  if  advisable  and  others 
only  three.  We  hope  to  use  this  device  to  assist  pupils  who  are  already 
over-age.  Usually  the  over-age  condition  was  brought  about  by  defi- 
ciency in  some  one  subject,  probably  arithmetic.  It  is  quite  possible 
under  the  device  of  elasticity  in  the  number  of  lessons  per  week  that 
a  pupil  can  take  double  the  number  of  periods  and  thereby  regain 
lost  ground. 

Some  pupils  may  do  the  work  of  a  half  grade  in  two  or  three  months, 
as  many  are  doing,  or  it  may  be  some  pupils  will  require  the  full  half 
year.  If  by  any  accident  a  pupil  should  take  longer  than  a  half  year 
in  any  one  subject  then  he  would  be  given  a  larger  number  of  periods 
in  this  subject  and  other  means  probably  taken  to  enable  him  to  recover 
lost  ground. 

Rates  of  Progress. 

A  certain  number  of  pupils,  probably  twenty-five  to  thirty  per  cent, 
are  moving  in  most  subjects  very  much  faster  than  the  usual  class  rate. 
In  some  extreme  cases  the  rate  would  indicate  that  they  will  cover 
two  or  even  three  years'  work  in  one.  This  rapid  type  does  not  appear 
to  be  made  up  exclusively  of  the  excessively  ' c  bright ' '  pupils,  but  quite 
a  few  of  them  have  heretofore  been  regarded  as  "  indifferent "  or  even 
slow  pupils.  Some  of  them  seem  to  have  awakened  to  new  interest  in 
their  school  work,  and  some  of  them,  though  plodders,  are  now  rating 
as  rapid  by  reason  of  their  accuracy,  which  enables  them  to  skip  dupli- 
cate exercises. 

A  certain  number  of  pupils,  probably  ten  to  twenty  per  cent,  are 
making  slower  progress  than  would  appear  under  the  class  system. 
I  use  the  word  "appear"  advisedly,  for  in  the  course  of  two  or  three 
years  they  will  probably  be  much  further  advanced,  actually,  than 
under  the  class  system.  While  their  rate  of  learning,  in  a  comparative 

(19) 


way,  is  slower,  they  belong  to  the  type  who  usually  repeat  grades. 
Under  the  individual  system  there  can  be  no  repetition  of  grades. 
Whatever  progress  a  pupil  makes  is  solid  progress  based  upon  compre- 
hension and  ability.  Therefore  while  the  pupil  moves  more  slowly 
than  the  usual  class  moves,  yet  at  the  end  of  the  year  he  will  still  move 
on,  and  will  not  be  dropped  back  a  year  in  time.  Consequently  the 
individual  system,  while  compelling  in  some  cases  a  slower  daily  rate, 
reaches  final  goals  sooner. 

No  Repetition  of  Grades. 

Under  the  present  plan  we  are  operating  there  can  be  no  repetition 
of  grades  and  therefore  one  chief  cause  of  over-age  is  elided.  It  is 
practically  impossible  under  our  system  of  exercise  books,  when  per- 
fected, for  a  pupil  to  pass  over  any  principle  which  he  does  not  under- 
stand, or  to  forget  what  he  has  once  learned.  Under  the  class  system 
he  may  have  been  absent  during  a  critical  period,  or  he  may  have  been 
inattentive  at  the  time  the  teacher  was  explaining  the  principle,  or 
due  to  any  one  of  a  variety  of  conditions  he  may  not  have  grasped  the 
point.  Nevertheless,  by  class  momentum  he  was  carried  over  without 
having  made  the  principle  his  own.  Under  the  individual  system  none 
of  these  contingencies  are  possible.  He  does  his  own  thinking  at  every 
step.  By  the  system  of  duplicate  exercises  for  each  lesson  he  can  not 
pass  from  one  lesson  involving  a  given  principle  or  fact  until  he  shows 
by  his  accuracy  that  he  has  mastered  this  principle  or  fact.  If  he  is 
absent  he  takes  up  his  work  when  he  returns  exactly  where  he  left  off. 
By  the  system  of  automatic  reviews  worked  into  the  body  of  every 
lesson  it  is  difficult  to  forget  any  principle,  process  or  fact.  To  be 
tripped  up  by  one  of  these  past  facts  means  the  pupil  must  do  duplicate 
exercises  involving  this  fact  until  it  is  learned.  Pupils  who  do  not 
make  an  error  skip  such  duplicates.  Therefore  there  can  be  no  occasion 
for  repetition  of  grades.  Any  weakness  is  attended  to  at  once  by  the 
elasticity  in  the  length  of  lessons  and  in  the  number  of  lessons  per  week. 

Pupil  Correction  of  Exercises. 

The  crux  of  any  real  difficulty  in  the  operation  of  the  individual 
system,  as  we  are  developing  it,  lies  in  the  correction  of  the  exercise 
books.  The  system  itself  calls  for  more  written  work  than  the  class 
system  and  most  pupils  cover  a  great  deal  more  ground.  Aside  from 
the  fact  that  the  correction  of  so  much  written  work  would  be  a  burden 
upon  the  teacher,  the  principle  is  sound  that  as  a  means  of  learning 
in  most  subjects  there  is  no  exercise  quite  so  productive  and  thorough 
as  the  correction  of  errors.  Under  natural  incentives  of  premiums 
upon  accuracy  of  correction,  few  exercises,  our  experience  goes  to  show, 
offer  such  intense  and  effective  attention.  The  dogma  of  the  old 
pedagogy  that  a  pupil  should  never  see  or  know  errors  is  as  false  as 
a  doctrine  that  for  moral  training  we  should  never  read  the  ten  com- 
mandments. However,  we  have  not  yet  worked  this  principle  out  with 
sufficient  finality  of  detail  to  justify  accurate  statement;  but  we  have 


(20) 


gone  far  enough  to  reach  the  thorough  conviction  that  most  of  the 
correction  of  papers  in  all  subjects,  except  possibly  arithmetic,  can  be 
done  with  profit  by  pupils. 

The  Socratic  Discussion. 

There  is  one  form  of  the  class  plan  which  is  not  subject  to  the  usual 
weakness  of  class  instruction,  and  in  my  judgment  should  be  retained 
in  any  form  of  school  instruction.  I  refer  to  what  is  sometimes  known 
as  the  Socratic  discussion,  by  which  the  pupils  in  a  class  forum  express 
judgments  and  opinions  in  matters  upon  which  they  have  previously 
informed  themselves  as  to  facts.  This  Socratic  discussion  must  not  be 
confused  with  the  common  recitation  by  which  the  teacher  tests  how 
much  they  have  memorized  from  some  text.  The  Socratic  discussion  is 
usable  only  when  the  underlying  facts  are  acquired  and  ready  at  hand, 
and  has  for  its  purpose  the  development  of  personal  judgments  and 
broad  intelligence  based  upon  facts  previously  learned.  Under  the 
individual  plan  this  type  of  school  exercise  should  not  be  abandoned, 
nor  need  it  be.  When  the  progress  of  a  group  of  pupils  has  passed 
beyond  some  epoch  of  history,  some  geographical  area,  some  problem 
of  modern  industry,  or  other  complete  topic  in  any  field,  they  may  be 
gathered  together  for  a  class  discussion  as  described.  Such  exercise 
is  as  possible  under  the  individual  as  under  the  class  plan.  The  weekly 
program  should  provide  regular  periods  for  this  exercise  in  each  sub- 
ject suitable  to  it. 

The  Number  of  Pupils  to  One  Teacher  and  the  Work  of  the  Teacher. 

The  superficial  judgment  of  most  offhand  critics  to  whom  the  idea 
of  individual  teaching  is  for  the  first  time  presented  is  that  such  a  plan 
can  be  operated  only  with  a  small  number  of  pupils  in  the  schoolroom. 
They  are  naturally  thinking  of  the  individual  help  which  teachers 
under  the  class  system  sometimes  manage  to  sandwich  in  while  they  are 
operating  the  class  system.  In  the  Pueblo  plan  of  Superintendent 
Search  some  years  ago,  also,  the  teacher  heard  each  pupil  recite  indi- 
vidually just  as  she  conducted  a  class  recitation.  Such  a  system 
would  be  necessary  if  we  retained  the  existing  type  of  texts.  But  in 
the  plan  we  are  organizing  we  go  much  further  and  do  away  with  the 
oral  recitation  which  tests  what  a  pupil  memorizes  from  a  text,  and  we 
measure  only  the  output  of  application.  Teacher-help  is  also  discarded 
to  an  almost  exclusive  extent.  So  there  is  really  very  little  remaining 
of  the  teacher's  duties  of  the  class  system.  In  fact  the  only  duty  of 
serious  consideration  is  that  of  the  correction  of  pupils'  exercise  books, 
and  this  amount  of  work  is  greatly  increased.  But,  as  already  stated, 
we  are  making  pupil  correction  an  essential  feature  of  the  plan,  not  so 
much  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  the  teacher  of  labor,  but  as  a  most 
profitable  device  for  fixing  knowledge  by  intense  attention  and  as  a 
method  of  review.  We  feel  assurance  in  saying,  therefore,  that  under 
this  individual  plan  one  teacher  can  handle  effectively  at  least  as  many 
pupils  as  are  now  assigned  to  one  teacher  under  the  class  system;  and 


(21) 


that  the  labor  will  be  no  greater,  not  so  exacting  and  with  far 
nervous  strain,  petty  vexations,  and  daily  fatigue.     There  is  little  that 
is  wearying  and  nerve- wearing  either  tc  teacher  or  pupil. 

Short  Lesson  Periods  and  Intensity  of  Application. 

We  are  arranging  the  daily  program  to  dispose  of  the  time  in  such 
short  periods  that  fatigue  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  morning  from 
9  to  12  is  divided  into  two  school  periods  of  seventy  minutes  each, 
separated  by  a  recess  of  full  thirty  minutes  upon  the  playgrounds. 
In  the  afternoon,  for  grammar  grades,  there  is  a  seventy-minute  period, 
followed  by  a  recess  of  thirty  minutes,  and  then  another  school  period 
of  thirty-five  minutes.  The  primary  grades  are  dismissed  at  the  end  of 
the  first  seventy  minutes.  In  grammar  grades  the  longest  lesson  period 
is  twenty  minutes. 

The  work  period  of  seventy  minutes  is  distributed  in  short  periods 
to  avoid  fatigue  and  ennui.  In  the  primary  grades  no  subject  can 
occupy  more  than  ten  minutes.  In  the  fourth  grade,  for  example,  there 
are  daily  six  separate  periods  of  ten  minutes  each  of  arithmetic  and 
reading  and  geography,  fifteen  minutes  daily  in  five-minute  periods  of 
writing,  spelling  and  music,  and  forty  minutes  in  composition  and 
thirty  minutes  in  drawing  per  week,  in  ten-minute  periods.  This  is 
normal  allotment,  but  the  interchange  of  subjects  permitted  for  elas- 
ticity in  the  number  of  periods  per  week  for  individuals  materially 
modifies  this  number.  We  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting  that  in  our 
six  periods  of  arithmetic,  in  periods  of  ten  minutes  each,  the  pupil 
accomplishes  at  least  twice  as  much,  if  not  more,  than  in  one  period  of 
sixty  minutes.  Numerical  work  is  so  fatiguing  that  after  the  first 
fifteen  minutes  brain  fag  usually  sets  in  and  the  attention  sinks  to 
so  low  an  ebb  that  there  is  little  mental  power.  The  work  becomes 
inaccurate  and  comprehension  dulled.  Study  under  such  a  condition 
is  really  a  waste  of  time  as  well  as  a  physical  menace.  Long  school 
periods  are  doubtless  largely  explanatory  of  the  valuelessness  of  school 
time.  Our  short-period  system,  we  believe,  is  fully  as  productive  a 
factor  in  rapidity  of  progress  as  the  individual  feature. 

Home  Study. 

Our  plan  as  it  has  worked  out  has  elided  home  study.  We  find 
decidedly  better  progress  is  made  by  confining  the  pupil's  school  work 
within  the  school.  By  defining  the  amount  of  time  per  week  the  pupil 
can  put  upon  a  given  study,  and  whetting  his  incentives  for  advance- 
ment, we  secure  a  higher  power  and  intensity  of  attention  while  he  does 
work.  He  gets  to  work  promptly,  uses  his  time  while  he  works,  and 
haggles  for  the  last  minute.  This  condition  of  mental  activity  is 
one  that  cuts  through  difficulties  and  makes  for  indellible  memory. 
Dawdled  school  work  is  never  much  more  than  a  waste  of  time  at  best. 
In  adult  life  many  princes  of  business  manage  huge  enterprises 
effectively  in  much  less  time  than  their  offspring  daily  dawdle  away 
in  school.  Finally,  the  offspring  go  home  with  a  load  of  books  over 
which  again  to  dawdle  for  an  hour  or  more — and  all  with  slight 

(22) 


results.  The  school  has  ample  time,  and  if  it  will  use  it  economically 
and  wisely  it  will  accomplish  several  times  what  it  now  accomplishes. 
It  is  vigor  and  motive,  not  duration  of  time,  which  accomplishes  results 
in  mental  work. 

Application  to  Rural  Schools. 

Whatever  may  be  difficulties,  real  and  imagined,  of  supplanting  in 
the  city  schools  the  present  class  system  by  an  individual  system,  there 
are  no  obstacles  in  an  immediate  modification  in  this  direction  in  rural 
schools.  The  best  results  can  not  be  obtained  without  an  improve- 
ment in  texts,  but  there  is  no  reason  whatever  that  great  improvement 
can  not  be  made  immediately  by  the  simple  device  of  doing  away  with 
the  effort  to  maintain  the  lock-step  in  rural  schools  which  have  less  than 
twenty-five  pupils  in  attendance.  The  large  majority  of  rural  schools 
belong  to  this  classification,  and  one  teacher  can  attend  to  this  number 
under  any  system.  The  following  changes  can  be  made  immediately: 

First — Cease  prescribing  the  length  of  lessons. 

Second — Map  out  the  work  of  each  grade  or  half  grade  in  each  sub- 
ject and  make  clear  to  pupils  just  what  ground  they  must  cover  in 
order  to  enroll  in  the  next  grade  at  any  time  they  may  finish. 

Third — Give  such  individual  help  as  may  be  necessary  to  keep  pupils 
from  discouragement,  but  do  all  possible  to  establish  self -confidence 
and  to  stimulate  ambition. 

Fourth — Do  not  attempt,  in  reading,  arithmetic,  language  and  other 
formal  subjects  to  keep  pupils  together,  but  on  the  contrary  encourage 
individual  progress.  In  the  so-called  "culture"  subjects  the  teacher 
must,  until  a  new  type  of  text  is  invented,  use  her  wise  direction  as 
to  how  far  she  may  abandon  the  class  system. 

It  would  not  be  too  much  to  anticipate  that  these  modifications  would 
increase  the  general  promotion  rate  fifty  per  cent  and  enable  a  large 
proportion  of  pupils,  who  for  a  variety  of  reasons,  have  become  over- 
age, to  regain  lost  ground. 

There  never  was  any  occasion  for  the  rural  school  to  employ  the 
locked  step  graded  plan.  It  has  come  about  merely  by  aping  the  city 
school  system.  Fifty  years  ago  the  rural  school  permitted  individual 
progress  much  more  than  at  present  and  its  great  success  was  due  to 
this  fact. 

Application  to  City  Schools. 

In  city  schools  having  forty  or  fifty  pupils  to  the  teacher  some  modi- 
fications might  be  made,  despite  undesirable  texts,  provided  in  any 
given  school  teachers  and  principal  were  in  hearty  accord  with  the 
principle  that  the  evils  of  the  locked  step  must  be  destroyed.  Even 
with  the  unelastic  texts  we  now  have,  arithmetic,  the  chief  stumbling 
block  of  progress,  could  be  handled  upon  the  individual  plan  which 
has  been  indicated.  There  is  really  no  justification  for  prescribing 
the  length  of  lesson,  and  in  arithmetic,  in  any  class,  pupils  could  make 
their  progress  individually.  It  would  also  be  possible  without  much 
difficulty  to  use  the  device  of  an  elastic  number  of  lessons  per  week. 

(23) 


These  two  modifications  alone  would  put  an  end  to  forcing  pupils 
hastily  over  ground  they  do  not  comprehend  and  permit  each  to  make 
progress  in  proportion  to  his  ability,  regularity  of  attendance  and  per- 
sonal diligence.  Eemoval  of  these  common  stumbling  blocks  to  pro- 
gress would  probably  increase  the  general  promotion  rate  very 
materially. 

In  Conclusion. 

We  have  undertaken  the  problem  I  have  outlined  in  order  to  find  a 
system  that  would  eliminate  the  appalling  conditions  of  over-age  now 
manifest  as  the  product  of  the  class  system.  From  what  has  been  said 
there  is  slight  occasion  for  a  pupil  becoming  over-age,  under  the  plan 
operated,  except  by  reason  of  prolonged  absence  or  other  similar 
accident. 

1.  The  standard  of  progress  is  fixed  so  that  the  slowest  type  of  pupils 
can  cover  the  eight  grades  in  eight  years,  and  any  individual  can  go 
as  rapidly  as  his  abilities  and  diligence  justify  without  hampering 
restraint  of  any  kind. 

2.  Repetition  of  grades  is  made  unnecessary  and  practically  impos- 
sible. 

3.  If  a  pupil  from  any  accident  does  fall  behind  in  certain  subjects, 
the  elasticity  in  the  number  of  lessons  per  week,  aside  from  any  extra 
energy  he  may  exert,  will  enable  him  to  recover  his  standing. 

4.  The  increased  ambition  and  zeal  manifested  by  at  least  90  per  cent 
of  pupils  guarantee  that  their  rates  of  progress  will  be  very  materially 
faster  than  the  best  administration  of  the  class  system  has  ever  accom- 
plished for  the  best  pupils. 

5.  Whatever  power  and  knowledge  is  acquired  is  retained  and  is 
substantial. 

Therefore,  I  sincerely  believe  that  the  road  is  open  to  the  realization 
of  a  remedy  for  the  appalling  evils  of  the  over-age  results  of  the  class 
system,  and  in  so  far  as  over-age  is  a  cause  of  leaving  school  prema- 
turely, the  road  of  reform  seems  to  continue  through  this  problem 
as  well. 

But  in  this  matter  of  school  desertion  I  believe  there  are  other 
important  factors  as  well  as  over-age,  and  these  must  be  met  by  a 
reorganization  of  the  subjects  and  materials  which  the  schools  attempt 
to  teach  in  order  to  reach  world  efficiency.  But  as  an  administrative 
measure  for  teaching  any  subject  or  materials  of  world  efficiency  we 
must  first  eliminate  the  impossibilities  and  brutalities  of  the  class 
system,  and  whether  this  end  is  reached  by  a  system  such  as  we  are 
perfecting,  or  some  entirely  different  system  that  accomplishes  this 
elimination,  is  immaterial  and  irrelevant.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  what 
we  are  offering  is  more  than  the  lowest  layer  of  the  foundation  of  a 
schooling  system.  It  simply  offers  a  basis  upon  which  substantial 
building  may  proceed. 

The  class  lock-step  is  unnatural  and  false  to  human  nature  at  every 
point.  It  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  old  dogmas  which  assumed  that 
every  human  motive  and  impulse  is  wrong  and  bad,  that  the  duty 

(24) 


of  education  as  well  as  moral  training;  is  to  run  counter  to  these 
impulses,  to  compel  right  and  wisdom  by  force  in  its  most  repulsive 
forms.  All  that  we  have  this  far  attempted  is  to  eliminate  these 
impossible  features  of  the  force  system  and  to  use  some  of  the  more 
natural  and  simple  human  motives  for  accomplishing  results. 

We  do  not  pretend  that  we  have  even  tapped  the  reservoir  of 
"dynamic"  attention  and  thinking.  "We  have  lessened  the  tension  of 
"forced"  attention  by  cutting  out  the  requirement  that  forty  pupils 
shall  be  forced  to  give  attention  to  the  same  thing  simultaneously,  but 
the  motives  for  learning  must  be  excited  more  or  less  by  the  ambition 
to  get  through  with  tasks,  to  be  promoted,  to  be  proud  of  accomplish- 
ments, etc.  We  have  not  reached  the  point  which  the  Montesorri 
people  say  they  have  reached,  when  the  thing  studied,  in  itself,  seizes 
the  mind  by  the  impulses  of  invention  and  brings  it  to  the  white  heat 
of  dynamic  thinking.  This  stage  can  only  be  reached  when  things, 
not  books,  are  the  texts,  and  the  materials  which  the  world  uses  in  its 
workshops  have  been  kneaded  into  the  school  course  of  study.  This 
step  can  never  be  taken  while  the  class  lock-step  hangs  as  a  millstone 
about  the  neck  of  the  schools. 

We  hope  we  shall  escape,  at  the  outset,  the  misunderstanding  that 
we  have  undertaken  this  work  to  promote  individual  instruction.  The 
issue  is  not  individual  instruction,  but  to  find  some  substitute  for  the 
lock-step.  It  merely  happens  that  we  ourselves,  in  searching  for  some 
substitute,  have  come  upon  individual  instruction.  We  ask  no  one 
to  follow  us,  provided  he  finds  some  other  adequate  solution  of  lock- 
step  evils. 

The  issue  is  not  whether  the  substitute  we  have  outlined  is  sound  or 
not.  If  it  is  not,  another  substitute  must  be  found.  But  no  amount 
of  attack  upon  our  substitute  in  any  way  bolsters  up  the  lock-step 
system.  Its  impossiblities  remain  in  as  black  type  as  ever.  We  are 
not  essentially  concerned  in  making  converts  to  our  particular  sub- 
stitute. We  are  concerned  in  arousing  the  energy  to  establish  some 
efficient  substitute  to  replace  the  existing  inefficiency  of  the  lock-step. 
We  will  support  any  movement  that  accomplishes  this  end,  whether 
this  movement  uses  our  plan  or  any  other  as  good.  We  have  placed 
emphasis  upon  our  solution  because  it  is  a  habit  of  human  nature,  or 
superficial  forms  of  it,  to  shriek  down  as  "destructive  criticism"  any 
attack  upon  an  established  custom  or  institution,  however  iniquitous, 
and  to  demand  a  constructive  remedy.  We  therefore  have  forestalled 
this  form  of  defense,  but  wish  it  clearly  remembered  that  the  issue  is 
the  existing  evil  and  not  the  proposed  remedy. 


(25) 


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